Satya Nadella has defended Microsoft's $479 million contract to supply augmented reality systems to the US military that has been criticized by some of his colleagues.
The CEO said Monday that while he would continue to engage with employees and consider Microsoft's role as a corporate citizen, the company would not "withhold technology" from democratic governments.
"We made a principled decision that we're not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy," he told CNN Business at Mobile World Congress.
The US government said in procurement documents that it wants to integrate night vision, communication, targeting and threat recognition capabilities in its new headsets.
"Soldier lethality will be vastly improved through cognitive training and advanced sensors, enabling squads to be first to detect, decide, and engage," the documents state.
Microsoft employees have recently circulated a letter addressed to Nadella and Brad Smith, the company's president and chief legal officer, arguing that the company should not supply its HoloLens technology to the US military.
"While the company has previously licensed tech to the US military, it has never crossed the line into weapons development. With this contract, it does," the letter says, according to a copy posted to Twitter.
Organizers told CNN Business last week that more than 100 Microsoft employees have signed the letter.
More at the link: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/25/tech/augmented-reality-microsoft-us-military/
Microsoft was awarded the U.S. military contract back in November, and can end up providing more than 100,000 HoloLens headsets when it's all said and done. The Israeli army currently already takes advantage of HoloLens sets, claiming that they're beneficial for commanders and medics. Nadella, meanwhile, frames the controversial decision around the idea of corporate responsibility, saying that it's not about an arbitrary decision by any one company or any number of people within it, but rather "being a responsible corporate citizen in a democracy".